Genomics and Precision Health Blog – Archive Posts
Happy Thanksgiving: Collect & Act on Your Family Health History
As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family this November, remember that this special day is also National Family Health History Day. Family health history is important to your health and can help you detect unique disease risks and manage them before becoming sick, or find the right diagnosis and treatments when you have a certain Read More >
Posted on byTracking Translation of Human Genome Discoveries into Prevention and Control of Common Chronic Diseases: The Action is in Cancer!
Genomics seems to be everywhere these days. From the Human Genome Project to the Precision Medicine Initiative and from the Cancer Moonshot to breakthroughs in genome editing, we are overwhelmed with information about genomics. The hope and hype of discoveries are intermixed daily in published scientific articles and media coverage of how they might improve Read More >
Posted on byWhat Gets Measured Gets Done: Public Health Progress in Familial Hypercholesterolemia
Just 4 years ago, one of us (MJK) co-chaired the Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Foundation’s first FH Global Summit: Awareness to Action held in Annapolis, Maryland. The Summit brought together people from academia, government, the private sector, clinicians, as well as patients with the ambitious goals of raising awareness of FH, identifying key knowledge gaps, and Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentThe Cancer Moonshot, Hereditary Cancers and Population Genetic Screening
In September 2016, the Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel delivered a report with 10 ambitious recommendations to shape cancer research for the next five years. One recommendation is to “expand use of proven prevention and early detection strategies.” [PDF 199 KB] There is a lot we can do to prevent cancer now— even with no Read More >
Posted on byPrecision Public Health: More Precision Ahead for Individual and Population Interventions
In August 2016, we published a point-counterpoint viewpoint asking a crucial question that has been on the minds of researchers, health care providers and the public health community: “will precision medicine improve population health?” We understood that we were tackling “the elephant in the room” and hoped for reactions to this viewpoint. We were pleased Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsPrecision Medicine and Population Health: Dealing With the Elephant in the Room
In this week’s Journal of American Medical Association, we published a point-counterpoint commentary on the impact of precision medicine on population health. Announcement of the news of the US precision medicine initiative has been met with a range of responses from enthusiasm to skepticism about potential benefits, limitations and return on investment. In considering the Read More >
Posted on by 2 CommentsFive Misconceptions About the Role of Genomics in Public Health
In a recent post, I reviewed the progress of genomics in public health over the past two decades and pondered on the lingering skepticism about genomics in the public health community. I propose that this skepticism is driven, at least in part, by 5 common misconceptions about the role of genomics in public health. In Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentFrom Genes to Public Health 1996-2016: The Train Has Left the Station
In 1996, a working group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article in the American Journal of Public Health entitled: “From Genes to Public Health: Applications of Genetic Technology in Disease Prevention.” The agency-wide group assessed the implications of the Human Genome Project and related technologies for public health and disease Read More >
Posted on byPrecision Public Health: Reconciling Biological and Social Determinants of Health
On June 6-7, 2016, I had the honor of participating in the “Precision Public Health” summit hosted by the Gates Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology at the University of California in San Francisco. The summit focused on developing a global “precision” agenda to improve health and prevent death and disease Read More >
Posted on by 1 CommentThe Shift From Personalized Medicine to Precision Medicine and Precision Public Health: Words Matter!
Advances in genomics and other ‘omic’ technologies have ushered in a new era variably called “personalized” or “precision” medicine, which takes into account individual genetic and other sources of variability in disease treatment and prevention. In the past decade, we have seen a significant growth in interest and usage of the terms personalized and precision Read More >
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